Seeing his brother again was like being sent back to that time, to the first few weeks after the fire, where he'd woken up still half believing that the flames and the smoke had just been a bad dream and his brother would be sitting on his bed, asking him if he'd had a nightmare any second now. He remembered calling out for him, waiting in the bathroom in a half-awake daze for his brother to try and brush his teeth with the hairbrush again. He remembered when he and Aunt Cass used to sit at the breakfast table and all of her attempts at conversation would die because there was a third, empty seat at the table. How many weeks did it take for them to get past the shock of seeing it empty, or of seeing it filled with someone who wasn't him?

Even after the initial shock wore off, even after he stopped calling for his brother in the mornings, first with a panicked shout, then with a desperate whisper, Hiro never cried. He'd wake up in the middle of the night with a scream on his lips and a sob in his throat, but he never gave in to the urge to let the tears fall. He couldn't remember a time when he'd cried and Tadashi hadn't been around to comfort him. And he knew that if he never cried, there never would be, so he choked down the sob and swallowed the scream.

Then Baymax came. And then Gogo and Honey and Wasabi and Fred. And things got a little more bearable. Things got better.

Of course, he still wanted his brother back, but living wasn't quite so painful anymore. The Tadashi-shaped emptiness in his heart stopped drawing all his thoughts to it, stopped paralyzing his body and mind, even if it never vanished completely.

He never stopped wanting his brother back.

But he'd never imagined it would happen like this.

Standing at the top of the hill, looking nervous and weirdly pale, was Tadashi. There were lines on his face Hiro couldn't remember seeing before, and purple shadows under his eyes. That wasn't what really drew his attention, though, as his brain tried to wrap around the complete impossibility that the brother he'd nearly killed a man for was somehow still alive. His right eye and arm had been replaced by advanced cybernetic enhancements. While the implant itself was well made, its implementation was sloppy. Metal plating radiated from the cybernetic eye, spreading out over the bruised patchwork of his scarred skin. Whoever'd added the enhancements hadn't cared at all for his brother's comfort or appearance.

As for his right arm… it was created from carbon sheets, one placed over the other. It wasn't made for comfort. Carbon was used for robot parts when flexibility and endurance were prioritized over measurability. This meant Tadashi would have an easier time punching someone out than he would holding a fork.

And that wasn't like him.

The entire assessment of Tadashi's prosthetics had passed through Hiro's mind within seconds. By the time Hiro had backed up enough that he could feel the edge of his living brother's gravestone pressing against his lower back, he'd already come to the conclusion that whoever'd fixed up his brother had done so with the intention of turning him into a weapon.

Shock quickly turned to anger. Fists clenched. A growl bubbled from his throat.

How dare-

No. It was still possible this wasn't his brother. Someone could have found out his real identity, they could have known just how much he'd give to have his brother back, but what they didn't know was that he wasn't the broken teenager he'd been when he'd gone up against Callaghan. He was stronger now. Harder. And he knew he couldn't let his emotions rule him.

That was why he had to be sure.

"Hold up, Hiro!" Tadashi's voice drowned out his thoughts. It was so familiar. It was already filling the hole he'd only begun to grow around and if this turned out to be a trick the hole would break and spread and crack-

He refocused on his brother to see him struggling down the hill, his hands coming up every now and then to show he was unarmed. Except they both knew he wasn't.

Tadashi misjudged his footing a few feet from the bottom, tripped, and tumbled the rest of the way down, finally coming to a stop at Hiro's feet. "This is not how I saw this going, " Tadashi admitted, while still on his back.

While he climbed back to his feet, the gears in his biotech whirring softly, Hiro pulled away from the stone. Arms still at his sides, he fought down the urge to help him up and asked, "How did you see this going, Tadashi? You've been gone for three years," he watched his brother flinch as he pretended to scratch his ear, "I'm sure you've come up with a few scenarios."

That was it. Stall him. Get answers.

One of Hiro's piercings began to flash, a signal going out. He'd augmented three of them in his spare time. The gage on his left ear contacted Baymax, on his right contacted the team, and as for the piercing he'd just brushed… Well, that was the reason the ground was shaking.

"Hiro," the man who looked like Tadashi threw a nervous glance at a rattling storm drain, "are you doing this?" All at once, microbots burst from the ground like an angry cloud of locusts, rushing forward and swarming around his legs until he could feel them vibrating against his skin. With a yelp, he tried to leap away, but they grabbed him and hung him several feet above the ground by his legs. "Hiro!" He shouted. "This isn't funny, knucklehead!"

Of course, it wasn't funny.

Leaving a few thousand microbots hovering behind him for dramatic effect and intimidation purposes, Hiro stepped up to his captive, who was looking more annoyed than frightened.

Hm, that could do with some fixing.

"Who are you? Why are you here?"

Looking thoroughly unimpressed, Tadashi groaned, "This is closer to how I saw this going." Then he refocused on his brother, or focused the best he could with all the blood rushing to his head. "My name is Tadashi Hamada. I was in a coma for one year and a prisoner for two. And I'd really like to be put down."

"Whose prisoner?"

Tadashi scratched his ear, as though considering whether or not he should actually divulge that information to his possibly unstable brother, then quickly changed his mind when he saw Hiro's eyes narrow and felt the microbots tighten around his waist, "A hacking group called Chaos. They did…" He trailed off, then gestured to his prosthetics to get the point across.

Not missing a beat, Hiro asked, "Did you ask for that biotech?"

"Of course not!"

"Then how did they get it on you?"

"I woke up with it."

That was illegal. And the only way someone Tadashi didn't know or trust could get biotech on him, just like Hiro'd suspected. It heated his blood, making him feel as though it could bubble right out of his skin.

"Why were you in a coma?"

"It was medically induced." He rolled his eyes. "Apparently, they didn't want me to wake up screaming." Well, Hiro couldn't exactly fault them for wanting to keep his brother from the worst of the pain. He could fault them, however, for taking him away and for letting his family think he was dead.

While Hiro silently ordered the microbots to slowly let his (probably) brother down, he said, " If you're really my brother, then you should know the last thing you said to me… right?"

Confusion clouded the man's clear brown eyes for a second, then he softened. "How could I forget? I told you someone needed to help. I've remembered those words a million times. And I-" His voice was starting to get a little raspy so he swallowed. "I hate that the last memory you've had of me these last three years was of me leaving."

That was it. That was his stupid, self-sacrificing, over-protective big brother.

All of the microbots fell to the ground like stones, their orders and direction lost to the swirling mass of fear and relief and doubt in Hiro's mind. Barely conscious of his actions, he uttered a soft choking noise and stumbled forward, just in time for his brother to scramble to his feet and catch him.

It startled Tadashi to realize just how big his little brother had grown, but he pulled him close and held him tight, because it didn't matter what Hiro looked like or how big he'd gotten. He'd always be his little brother.

"We thought you were dead." The words came out quiet, like Hiro could scarcely believe this was real.

Tadashi shut his eyes against the tears he could feel welling up. "I never meant to leave you."

"We mourned you, Tadashi." Then he felt the heat on his shoulder and the tears rushed forward.

"I never stopped trying to get back to you. I never should have left you. I'm so sorry, Hiro."

Hiro shifted. "Don't apologize. I know there's no way you'd willingly let Aunt Cass and I think you were dead."

Grin holding a nervous tint to it, Tadashi replied, "So, you're not mad at me?"

"Nope."

The microbots rose from the ground, vibrating waspishly around them. Sighing, Hiro flipped the switch on his gage, letting them return to default programming. As they streamed back underground, Tadashi loosened his grip on his brother slightly so he could give him a dubious look.

Shrugging, Hiro added, "Well, I'm not mad at you."

"You've gotten big, Hiro." Tadashi commented when they were about halfway to the Lucky Cat Café. He didn't quite have to look up to see eye to eye with his little brother, there was still an inch or so height difference between them but that was less than Tadashi remembered.

Hiro scoffed, kicking the pavement as they walked. "Did you expect me to stay fun-sized forever?" Every now and then they'd pass a person who'd look curiously at his brother's prosthetics, so when he wasn't concentrating on the conversation he'd be meeting their gazes and trying to appear intimidating so Tadashi didn't realize he was sort of the center of attention, though he probably already knew. At least looking intimidating was a lot easier at seventeen than it'd been at fourteen.

He didn't bother to try and scare the kids, though. Most of them seemed to think a metal arm was really cool. One mother leaned against a store window after her daughter pulled away from her, biting their lip while little girls tugged at Tadashi's pants leg. Hiro eased up on the glower and threw the little girl a playful wink, making her laugh as Tadashi knelt so she could touch his arm. The smooth shininess of the prosthetic seemed to impress her, and the little boy who came after her, and the kid after him.

"Would you look at that?" Hiro chuckled, watching from a few feet away as his brother tried to deal with all the attention. "How does it feel to be popular, nerd?"

"Ah, don't pay attention to him." Tadashi mock-whispered to the child grasping his fingers as he ruffled his hair, all the while keeping one eye on the gathering group of mildly anxious parents. "He's just jealous because I look like a superhero and he looks like a delinquent."

A strangled cough made him look behind him to see Hiro stuffing a fist into his mouth. Hiro waved him off. "Sorry. It's nothing. Continue."

It seemed there were some things that never changed. Even taller and pierced, his brother was still a dweeb.

After fifteen minutes, the kids finally started to trickle on home and they continued to make their way to the café in easy silence. Every now and then they'd brush each other, just to make sure they were awake and real and whole and there.

Parting ways at the door ached, like he was trying to leave a rib behind. But Hiro knew it wouldn't be a good idea to just spring Tadashi on his aunt. He had to prepare her, somehow. The café closed around an hour ago so she'd be cleaning up in the kitchen.

"Don't come in until I tell you, okay? I don't want Aunt Cass to freak out when she sees you."

The unimpressed look he got in response to that was expected. It wasn't like his brother knew that Hiro had grown into a sensitivity master. Okay, that was probably stretching the truth a bit, but that was only because Baymax usually handled the gooey stuff.

Baymax!

Grinning, Hiro walked through the front door to see Aunt Cass putting a strawberry cake back into the freezer. Noticing him standing awkwardly by the door, she gestured for him to come in. "Hey, Hiro! How was your day? You missed a ton of sales and-" she looked him up and down for any new holes in his body, then sighed in relief when she found none "and how was your walk?" As always, she leaned across the counter, hair still speckled white with flour, and waited for him to speak, as though she couldn't wait to hear about whatever exciting thing he'd been up to. As long as it didn't include dark alleyways or potential maiming.

Feeling like a little kid again under her eager stare, he grinned sheepishly, hand lifting his bangs from his eyes- he'd have to find a clip for those – and said, "Actually, Aunt Cass, I found- I mean, I met someone on my walk that you're really gonna want to meet." Squeaking steps drew their attention to Baymax, who was halfway down the steps and looking out the window.

Baymax blinked. "Tadashi."

Out of the corner of his eye, Hiro saw his brother waving frantically, begging for the robot's silence. He slid over to the window and closed the shutters on him, cheesy grin never leaving his face.

"Hiro" Aunt Cass started, her tone soaked with suspicion, "What's going on?" She tried to look outside, only to be blocked by her nephew.

"On? What? Nothing! Nothing's going on…" Aunt Cass seemed to let herself be herded back to the kitchen, then broke free, ripped the door open and-

Found a very uncomfortable Tadashi crouched on her doorstep.

He waved. "Um… Hi, Aunt Cass?"

Aunt Cass handled the revelation rather well, considering. Sure, she passed out, but it only took Baymax ten minutes to revive her, and then it took very little convincing to get her to accept that she wasn't dreaming and Tadashi wasn't a robot.

Just like he had with Hiro, Tadashi gave her a brief rundown of him being rescued/kidnapped for his programming skills and sedated for a year. It took both of the brothers to convince her not to call the police. And though Hiro didn't know Tadashi's reason for doing so, he knew that the police likely wouldn't catch the group, anyway. Plus, they'd likely ask to take Tadashi in for questioning, and he wasn't going anywhere. Ever. He probably wasn't even going to be allowed near pointy objects for at least a year.

Once the reunion got particularly emotional, Hiro slid away, retreating to his room upstairs, and settled into the same seat he'd had for three years, though not before glancing at the empty bed next to his and realizing, his spirit soaring, that it wouldn't be empty that night.

Even after years of being an inactive Bot fighter, he still had contacts in the underground. If anyone had heard anything about Chaos, they'd let him know.

While he waited for the term Chaos to pop up in an email, post, forum, discussion, broadcast, podcast, or transmission, he played with the top half of a white and red kitsune mask he'd found a few weeks before in a festival, wondering idly if Tadashi knew anything about Callaghan or what happened after the fire. It was unlikely that the group he'd stayed with let him watch the news, so he probably didn't even know about Big Hero 6.

Hm.

Actually, they might have to call themselves Big Hero 7 now.

Course, that was only if Tadashi wanted in on the superhero business. He wasn't going to force him. Especially since he wasn't even sure how he was going to tell him yet.

Guess he'd just have to blow that bridge up when he got to it.

The computer behind him dinged just as he heard footsteps coming up the stairs. "Aunt Cass fell asleep on the couch." A yawn. "I'm pretty exhausted, too." Panicking, Hiro threw the mask under his desk, minimized the alert, and tried to figure out where to put his arms. Should he cross them? Put them behind his head? Fold them? Sit on them? Jeez, what did people usually do with arms?

It'd been a long time since he'd had to hide something from someone who lived in the same room as him and he was dreadfully out of practice.

Tadashi noticed his guilty expression immediately. "Unbelievable." He exclaimed, throwing his arms up. "I haven't even been home for an entire day yet and you're already trying to get away with something."

Steepling his fingers, Hiro debated his next move. History told him lying wouldn't work, and honestly, he didn't want to. If he let Tadashi know what he was planning on doing, he'd be detained indefinitely. Speaking of being detained, he'd ask his brother later if he wanted less conspicuous prosthetics. Sure, they looked strong, durable, and the kids loved it, but he kind of looked like a character straight out of Fred's comics. And that probably wasn't good for job interviews.

Later, though. For now, "BAYMAX! TADASHI IS SUFFERING FROM EMOTIONAL DISTRESS AND NEEDS A HUG!"

"What?!"

For an extremely bulky robot, Baymax could be fast when he wanted to be. Tadashi barely had time to blink before he was wriggling in Baymax's loving embrace. "There, there, Tadashi. I am here."

With one last salute, Hiro grabbed the mask, a hair tie, a black hoody that his newly returned brother hopefully hadn't managed to tag already, and one other thing. Then he flung open the window, straddled the sill, and added, "Baymax, don't let Tadashi leave until I come back."

"Hiro!"

Chaos was looking for new recruits around the bot fighting grounds. As long as they didn't make too big of a splash, Yama tolerated their presence. Which was why they were so surprised when a guy in a kitsune mask approached them. Usually, it was the other way around.

He walked with his hands in his pockets, a confident sway in his step and a grin playing on his lips. The hole in his tongue didn't exactly scream cop and he was a little too young, but they still wanted to know how he'd managed to find them.

The teen shrugged. "I heard through the grapevine that you were looking for a new programmer. And it just so happens that I'm a genius. So," he waggled his eyebrows. "what do you say you give me a shot?"

Although he was right, Chaos was short a programmer after the last one booked it the second they lengthened his leash (though they did sort of kidnap him), they weren't going to just lead him to their lab without a test.

It wasn't a test to determine his loyalty. Just his capabilities. They tossed him a trash robot, pieces left over from one of the battles, and a few tools. "Make that into something usable."

Fascinated, they watched him turn it in his hands, the gears in his head already turning. He laughed. "Too easy."

Barely fifteen minutes later they had a working battle bot with 360° motion and a gun attached to its arm that could shoot a red beam of concentrated light. Even the smartest among them would have taken at least an hour.

The decision was unanimous.

"You're in."

Frowning at the quick answer, the guy asked, "Don't you want to test my loyalty?"

Chaos conferred with themselves for several seconds. One of them spoke excitedly about the mask as he bounced on the balls of his feet, leading the rest of them to hush him. The teen in the mask felt a pang of regret as he watched, the interaction reminding him of his own group of friends. He quickly smoothed his features when they broke the huddle.

"We don't think that'll be necessary."

The masked teen shrugged, seemingly happy to be accepted into their group.

It was an hour before the police detected a signal that led them straight to the illegal hacking group known as Chaos. As far as they knew, they caught all members, except for one they'd never seen before. A boy in a black hoodie and a kitsune mask. He escaped through the roof before they had a chance to bring him in for questioning, his dark clothes making it almost impossible to see him against the night sky.

From the testimonies of the hackers, though, it seemed he wasn't a member. Apparently, the kid was a vigilante. Another vigilante.

The next morning, while Hiro was upstairs working on a less conspicuous eyeball (with a tracker in it) and a fireproof set of armor (that his brother didn't know about), Tadashi saw a report on the news about a vigilante in a kabuki mask that led the entire police force to the hideout of a local hacking group.

It took him a few seconds to pick his jaw off the flow. More than enough time for Hiro to ask Baymax to give his brother another hug. He wasn't going to try and escape out the window again. He didn't have to. Now that he didn't have to worry about his brother being taken away, he was absolutely fine with just riding out the storm. Plus, he missed having his brother worry about him.

"HIROOO!"

Yep.

It was good to have his brother back.